The wildest of all the American Vintage Hot Rod guitars, this retro custom axe starts with an American Vintage '57 Stratocaster and ties together several generations of Strat customizations in one killer player's instrument. It has a slim V neck profile with satin-finish back, 9.5" fingerboard radius, and medium-jumbo frets to boost the playability.

The souped-up electronics roar with Samarium Cobalt Noiseless guitar pickups at the neck and mid along with a DiMarzio Tone Zone pickup at the bridge, plus the second tone control is wired to the bridge pickup. A top-of-the-line thin-skin nitrocellulose lacquer finish gives it the right look. The rest is true-blue '57 Strat: comfort-contoured alder body, maple neck with vintage C profile, Fender/Gotoh vintage-style tuners, single-ply white pickguard, and chrome hardware. Includes case.

The U.S. Vintage Hot Rod Series from Fender creates new instruments but with looks, specs, and features that make them feel as if you were the third owner of a vintage instrument. Here's your chance to own that beautiful player's electric guitar but in brand new shape and freshly set up from the Fender factory! Includes case.

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I am not really that impressed with the one layer pick guard, but if that's all I can dislike about an instrument,I'm cool with that. I use my 57 for recording and I also have a American Deluxe that I gig with and the 57 for a back up. These 2 guitars are my main instruments. The tone of the 57 is awesome. For the music my band performs. The sound is perfect. Thanks to FENDER.

The only problems I have with this guitar is; After playing for a little while there's a build up on the neck and body where my arm rests. As I play it more it seems not to build up as much. The other is when you open the case it won't stay open, hopefully the more I use it, it will break in. Other than that it's a great guitar and I truly love it!!!!

This is my favorite guitar. To begin, the pickup combination is amazing. When I play a strat, I usually never use the bridge pickup and usually stick to the neck and middle for blues. There is no suprise here that the neck and middle sound great. The SCN pickups may not be the latest and greatest from Fender's noiseless pickups but they preserve the Stratocaster tone better than any of the other Fender noiseless pickups in my humble opinion.

The Tone Zone, although not traditional in appearance or sound, give you a punch in the gut that most strat players will never feel. It is very fat and gives the strat a great low end in the bridge position that is missing from any other Stratocaster I have played. In case you were wondering, it is much better than the normal Fender humbucker that you find in "fat" strats. It sound good clean but really shines through an overdriven amp. Let me be clear, I have yet to play a single note through this pickup that I have not loved. By the way, all 3 pickups were very well balanced right out of the box. In the interest of full disclosure, I have yet to play this guitar live (and probably won't for a very long time).

The neck is described as a soft V, but a hybrid between a C and V is probably more accurate. It is much softer than the neck in the American Deluxe V-Neck Stratocaster, which I also considered (am I glad I got this instead)! It fills you hand nicely without feeling like a baseball bat. It is probably not one that a metal guy would like, but I play blues, classic and alternative rock, and it is hands down the most comfortable neck I have ever played on.

Set up was good out of the box, but I blocked the tremolo because I never use it and I have heard from many people that the bridge is the weak point on the whole guitar. Obviously, this has not been my experience, but I am not the best person to ask about tremolo use anyway. It did come with 3 springs installed and another 2 in the case.

Price on this guitar is high; it took a long time to save up for this axe, but I cannot speak to the value highely enough. The construction is great, the finish was flawless and it would appear that Fender wanted to make sure this one left the factory in great condition.

The accessories with the guitar are good, but may not be for everone. For example, the strap that comes with the guitar is a little old fashioned. Google pictures of Buddy Holly if you want to see what I mean. My tweed case had a broken latch when it arrived, but Musician's Friend's customer service was great at fixing the issue. Thank you again, by the way. I have nothing but good things to say about MF.

I took a gamble with this guitar because I could not play it before I bought it. I have never seen it in a music store and most sales associates look at you a litte funny when you say the name, like you made up this guitar in your head. YouTube reviews are a little thin as well. I found that Jay Wud's video's describing his gear were the most helpful, as it featured both clean and dirty tones. Additionally, sound quality for the video was great. He was discussing the guitar in a studio after all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xngk35ahpKI

In conclusion, if you are considering this guitar, do not wait. It is no longer listed on Fender's website and it looks like the next generation will not be the same. I hope this helps the people on the fence. You will not be disappointed.

I got this Fender Strat for Christmas. It's my first Fender stratocaster and I love every bit of it! In my opinion, the candy apple red is the most classic and beautiful color Fender has to offer. I installed a new mint-green pickguard and it's everything I wanted. I definitly recommend this to anyone looking to buy a Fender or has even been on this page to buy it. You won't regret it. Not only do I only have good things to say about it, but many others say its the best strat they own. And when I ordered it mid November, it said it won't ship until January something. Don't let that scare you or make you not want to wait. I got it by Christmas, way earlier than I expected. Get this guitar!

I've had this guitar for over a year now, and it has become my favorite of the 11 other guitars I have. It has exactly what I was looking for. I got this guitar because I knew I wanted a soft V-neck and a REALLY HOT bridge pickup with a maple fretboard. This is the ONLY guitar I found after weeks of searching that met all my criteria. It plays GREAT, sounds GREAT and looks GREAT (2 tone sunburst). My only beef is that I didn't care for the way the back of the neck is finished, it gets sticky if my hands sweat a bit. I sanded it off and now it's great, though the neck isn't so shiny anymore.

I received my Vintage Hot Rod 57 today and I couldn't put it down. The neck is the finest I have ever come across, and this after over 30 years of playing. I see this Fender making my Gibson Les Paul my 2nd choice to play. Perfect factory set-up, dead on with everything. I see myself getting many many years of joy out of this guitar. Only other thing I can say is if you get a chance, BUY ONE,YOU WLL NOT REGRET IT.

I've played on different guitars for 15 years & this is the first baby that i'm attached to like mad! beautiful sound, playability and what i love the most about it is the Nitro finish! im taking it to all my gigs and its feeding on my sweat like a hungry vampire :)

I have had mine for about a year. It has a killer chickin pickin tone. The noiseless pickups are great. The DiMarzio pickup blazes distortion. If you like Rock or Outlaw Country, this is the guitar. Spend the money...it is well worth it. Don't play it cause you will take it home.

Man, American-made quality with classic, funky Strat tones and heavy-metal playability, overdrive, sustain, and attitude! Take the most famous guitar in history, retro it out to 1957 classic beauty and craftsmanship, and then throw on the most comfortable and playable neck every with three of the best pickups in modern times and you've bought yourself a 5-Star winner.

First I'll cover the good points- the finish is GREAT. The hardware is the right stuff; Give me the vintage 6-point trem any day. Mine is setup flush with the body, but I use it a LOT, and it stays in tune great. The neck feels great- not too huge, not too slim. This one is substantial but still quick. Fretwork is pretty good. The pickups are decent and, the ToneZone is very acceptable, if not having a SC in the bridge doesn't bother you. The SCN pickups, however, I'm not as impressed with as they still lend more noise than I'd expect from a "noiseless" single coil. The overall tone of them is passable, but IMHO can be improved with the likes of Van Zandt, etc...maybe a DiMarzio AREA series.Mine didn't come setup or intonated particularly well; but I took care of that myself. I suggest extra shielding in the control cavity, too.Bottom line- IMHO, this series is the overall best value in an American-made Fender Strat. Near Fender Custom-Shop quality, just spring for some better pickups and perhaps the Callaham trem block, and you have a KILLER Strat without the CS pricetag. I'D BUY ANOTHER WITHOUT HESITATION. In fact, I will in the near future.